Pressiteade
Under the impulsion of its trio of drivers; the Alpine470 improved through the free-practice sessions before Thomas Laurent andPierre Ragues got down to business in qualifying, but the team was faced with atraction control problem and went with only one set of new tyres to givethemselves a better chance in the race.
After qualifying seventh in their category, the duoleft André Negrão to take the green flag. The Brazilian driver put in a stellarstart to move up to fourth place in the opening lap, then the top three on thefollowing lap.
Overtaken by the n°38 Jota entry, André Negrão held onto fourth place after the first round of pit stops, but a small mistake on hisout lap opened the door to two of his rivals. He managed to get more mileagefrom his tyre than his adversaries to move up the order before handing over toPierre Ragues.
In sixth place when heading out, the Silver driverwent on the attack, overtaking the n°29 Racing Team Nederland entry, then henarrowed the gap to the United Autosports entry. Thomas Laurent pressed on,then stayed out for a double stint during a full course yellow one hour beforethe end of the race.
The Frenchman maintained a fast tempo to move intofourth place, but his hopes for a podium result vanished when he spun and lost20 seconds. After a last pit stop with 20 minutes remaining, Thomas Laurentkept Nyck de Vries at bay in the final laps to assure fourth place for theAlpine A470 under the chequered flag.
With another 12 points, the Signatech Alpine Elf teamis now just 13 points from the leaders in the LMP2 category. The FIA WorldEndurance Championship will next head to the Sakhir circuit to conclude thefirst half of the season at the 8 Hours of Bahrain on 12-14 December.
Quotes
Philippe Sinault,Team principal Signatech Alpine Elf
“Despitea difficult weekend, we are leaving China third in the championship. Thefour-hour race format doesn’t work to our advantage and it is something new todeal with this season. We did a good job with it at Silverstone, but it was a bitmore complicated this time. We spent a long time looking for good balance andwe found it but it was a little too late. Our race pace is our strength and wewere in the heat of the battle. André did a fantastic job at the start to putus in contention and even in the lead just as he handed over. We then askedPierre to save fuel until he fulfilled his minimum driving time. It was athankless and very frustrating task, but he was able to fill it perfectly aspart of our stint management. Thomas did the final two and a half stints on thesame set of tyres despite the very abrasive track conditions. We ended upfinishing fourth and it would have been hard to imagine finishing any better.This result see us move up to third place in the general classification that isincredibly close after the win of three different teams in as many races. Likewe have said since the start of the season, you must take advantage of everyopportunity to score as many points as possible in every race. The format ofthe next race in Bahrain will be better suited for us, but the battles will beonce again fought with no quarter.”
André Negrão: “It was a difficult weekend from the start as we hadstruggled with the setup. We made a few drastic changes that improved theoverall package but they were not enough. Our two problems in qualifying didn’thelp us out, but the car felt good early in the race despite a significant tyredegradation. Seeing where we were on Friday morning, this fourth-place kind offeels like a podium result. It was a struggle, but fourth place is a goodresult and the points that go with it will be good for the team in thechampionship. I am now looking forward to continuing the battle in Bahrain!”
Pierre Ragues: “This race will beremembered for the significant tyre degradation, which was seen in the laptimes. I tried to save fuel while staying out for 24 laps on the tyres wequalified on. I focused on this by giving it everything I’ve got. You have toremain consistent, but also gentle with the tyres and not make any mistakes. Iwas out for revenge after Fuji and I am relatively pleased with my stint, butwe were not here to race for fourth place. I hope that we will learn somelessons from this weekend to come back stronger and show more in Bahrain.”
Thomas Laurent: “The huge job done bythe engineers and the mechanics this weekend was unfortunately not enough tofix our small problems. I had too much understeer in free practice, but the balancewas good for qualifying prior to this traction control issue. I felt like therewas too much oversteer in the race and this cost us time at the end of a stintalthough my mistake at the first corner did not help. After an up-and-down weekend,we have to put our heads down to move forward, but I am confident that we willlearn from our mistakes to come in Bahrain confident and ready to fight for apodium and even victory."
Classification
4 Hours of Shanghai – LMP2
1. JOTAn°38121 laps
2. Jackie Chan DC Racing n°37 +17:090s
3. United Autosports n°22 +21:727s
4. Signatech Alpine Elf n°36 + 1 lap
5. Racing Team Nederland n°29 + 1 lap
6. High Class Racing n°33+ 1 lap
7. Cetilar Racing n°33 + 2 laps
NC. Cool Racing n°42 + 81 laps
FIA LMP2 Teams’ Trophy
1. Racing Team Nederland n°29 – 51 points
2. Jackie Chan DC Racing n°37 – 49 points
3. Signatech Alpine Elf n°36 – 38 points
4. Cool Racing n°42 – 36 points
5. JOTA n°38 – 35 points
6. United Autosports n°22 – 30 points
7. High Class Racing n°33– 26 points
8. Cetilar Racing n°33– 20 points
